Faced with the influx of thousands of migrants at the gates of Greece, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called an emergency meeting of the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense on Sunday at 6 p.m. In north-eastern Greece, some 13,000 migrants according to the UN were massed at the Greek-Turkish land border, hoping to cross from Turkey to Greece, after Turkey's decision on the night of Thursday to Friday to stop preventing the migrants trying to get to Europe to cross the border.
On its islands in the Aegean Sea near the Turkish coast, the migrants arrived more numerous than usual on Sunday, thanks to good weather. At least six dinghies loaded with 263 migrants landed on the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey on Sunday morning and others were approaching with nearly 300 people on board, the Greek coast guard said.
No shoes or luggage
From 6:30 am in Lesbos, “two boats arrived in the north with 74 people (including 36 children) and 53 people (including 33 children) respectively. Two other boats have arrived in the south of the island, Leon Theologos of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told AFP on the spot. Two other canoes arrived in the morning, according to the coast guard, with a total of 263 people on board.
According to the Greek coast guard, five other boats were heading towards midday for this Aegean island, close to the Turkish shores, with 299 migrants on board. According to the Greek agency ANA, most of the migrants arriving in Lesbos had no shoes or luggage. Four boats with 120 people also docked on the island of Chios and two others with 80 migrants in Samos, according to the ANA.
Another canoe with 43 people was approaching the island of Samos and a second with 58 migrants was heading for the Greek island of Chios, according to the coast guard. Unlike yesterday, the weather conditions were favorable on Sunday for crossing the Aegean Sea. According to the Greek coast guard, some 180 migrants arrived on the islands of Lesbos and Samos despite strong winds between Friday morning and Saturday morning, crossing the maritime border between Turkey and Greece.
Along the 200 km of land border where the Greek authorities have reinforced their patrols, Athens has blocked the illegal entry of nearly 10,000 migrants, according to a government source. "We are firmly protecting the borders of Greece and Europe," Alkiviadis Stefanis, Greece's deputy defense minister, said on Skai TV on Sunday. During the night, the Greek authorities carried out 73 new arrests of illegal migrants, in addition to the 66 of the previous day.
Reinforcements from Frontex
Meanwhile, the European border control agency Frontex announced on Sunday that it has deployed reinforcements and raised its alert level at the Greek-Turkish border, where thousands of migrants are trying to enter the EU. "We (...) have raised the alert level for all borders with Turkey to high," said a Frontex spokesperson in a statement released in Brussels.
“We have received a request for additional assistance from Greece. We have already taken steps to redeploy technical equipment and additional agents to Greece, ”she added. The European Commissioner for Migration, Margaritis Schinas, wrote on Tweeter that he had asked for an extraordinary meeting of EU interior ministers to discuss the situation.
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